January 2004 Archives
CD, Season of Mist 2004
Track list: Intro - Longing for Clarity - Acceptance in Silence - No Vision of Prophecy - Scourge of Thy Enemy - Distant Memories - Tempting Angelic Pride - Resurgence - Falling Through Decades - Repetition Breeds Insanity - Outro
Deciphering the Soul is a technically sound album, but for some reason, I don't find it that interesting. The artists involved are all famous from various bands (Hate Eternal, for example), so I guess it's some sort of a supergroup. I'm not familiar with any of those bands, so it's of little significance for me... The album is perhaps too American, even though it mixes Florida-death with some Scandinavian influences. There's not enough Scandinavia and too much Florida, I'd say... So it's not for me, but certainly for someone who likes fast and brutal American death metal. ***
CD, Season of Mist 2004
Track list: Ancient Devil Worshipping - Sluts of Hell - Satanic Victory - Universal Funeral - The Act of Spiritual Purification - Sanctum 666 - Whore (Filthy Whore) - Mass-Destruction - Nattefrost Takes a Piss - The Gate of Nanna - Still Reaching for Hell
Cover art tells you enough: Blood & Vomit is honest underground black metal. Vocalist-guitarist Nattefrost from Carpathian Forest has vomited a disc full of rocking black metal, just the way it was meant to be. This, of course, means that the target audience of this album is fairly limited. Anyway, I like it. It rocks, at least until the Beherit-cover The Gate of Nanna, which is slow and boring. After that, the album doesn't really pick up the speed. Enjoying Blood & Vomit to the fullest requires also a bad sense of humour. As an interesting curiosity, I should note that one of the euphemism used for vomiting in Finnish is "speaking Norwegian". How fitting. ****
CD, Rage of Achilles 2004
Track list: Sickness - Filthy Black Shit - And Still the Dreamer Sleeps - The Eternal Sea - Subliminal Hell - The End - Two of a Kind - No Light - Talking to God
Frost has an interesting line-up: multi-instrumentalist and two vocalists. Unfortunately the presence of two vocalists isn't really that significant. That's a small disappointment. The guy behind the music, Irrumator from Anaal Nathrakh (never heard) does his job well. Frost sounds good, if not that unique. Their sound is thick and gloomy. Not so furious, really - most of the album is pretty midtempo stuff. Choirs and female vocals are used to spice the tracks a bit, which is good. Talking to God is a good start for the black metal year 2004. ****
CD, self published 2003
Track list: Circles - Rising - Solid Gold Universe
Sway doesn't impress me much. Ok, it's just a demo, but anyway: the music's a bit bland. After listening to the disc, I remember nothing of it. It's technically pretty good, just bland and unimpressive. Like I've heard dozens of bands like this... With more edge, something more, Sway could be much better. *** (on a demo scale)
CD, Stupido Twins 2001
Track list: Jenkkapolkkahumppa (Faster, Harder, Scooter) - Humppasonni (Join Me) - Humppastara (Movie Star) - Hyljätyn humppa (Don't You Ever Leave Me)
In case you don't know Eläkeläiset ("Pensioners"), here's a short primer: the band plays humppa covers of familiar rock classics. Humppa is a Finnish dance, somewhat related to polka. Of course, the songs get new lyrics, more focused on the world of old people and humppa. The concept is simple, but effective. What's best, the band is actually gathered some fame outside Finland (at least in Germany).
The single features four great humppas. Best of them is easily "Humppasonni", cover of HIM's "Join Me". It's probably their best song ever. The other three aren't bad either. Unfortunately for all you people who don't speak Finnish, you'll never be able to completely understand and appreciate Eläkeläiset. ****
CD, Reprise Records 2003
Track list: Movie themes, May It Be, Into the West, Gollum's Song...
This very nice box has all the three Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks. I really loved the movies and the way they were made. All the detail that was put into the costumes, props, digital effects, everything. The music was certainly one part of it. Howard Shore, the composer behind it, has done a great work. I like the way different people and cultures sound different - my favourite is the Rohirrim, with their Scandinavian-influenced soundscape. It's the Hardanger fiddle, really. All of it is just great. I also like the songs - Enya's "May It Be" is probably the worst, but Annie Lennox's "Into the West" is just great, as is "Gollum's song", sung by the almost-Björk Emiliana Torrini. *****
CD, Karmageddon Media 2003
Track list: Parallels - A Silent Revolution - The Second Coming - Words I Never Speak - Clarity (Fragments of a Dream) - Panopticon - The Rising - Erase - Memory's End
At it's best, Domi<>nation is a great theme album. It draws it's inspiration from Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. It's well-used theme, but the lyrics are the best part of the album. Unfortunately the rest of it is way too power metal for me. The vocal melodies and the baroque classical-influenced guitar bits especially - Official Power Metal Handbook must've been in heavy use while they made the album. If you like the genre and don't mind the genre cliches, Domi<>nation is a good choice. I almost liked it. But just almost... ***
CD, Season of Mist 2003
Track list: ForThoseAboutToFuck - Idi - SixSixSixteen - CockJunkie - Sellout - IWannaDoItWithADonna - FruityRelationships - HeroinPunk - Sk8ergrrl - BadHabbits - OnTheStage - VeganFeast - DrinkFightFuck - TonyGoesToCourt (Skit) - OnTheHunt - CurrentTrends - Underground - DrugFiend - Achin'ForAn'A'Cup - DahmerTheEmbalmer - She'sAJunkie - NuCorprate - OrneryHornery - 66.6OnYourFMDial - TicketToRide + PainfullNoise Entitled"htabbaskcalb" - Let's Fuck
The album is full of short songs, most under two minutes. The styles vary from Carcass-like death metal to rather plain rock or punk. All are united by an idiot sense of humour. At their best the songs are pretty ok, but most of them are rather uninspired. Avoid. *
CD, Season of Mist 2003
Track list: Tom Dooley - The Geins - In the Mountains - The Cat Came Back - Found a Peanut
Macabre Minstrels is a side project of death metal band Macabre. The guys play classic Shel Silverstein melodies with acoustic guitars, enhancing the songs with new lyrics about death, serial killers and other macabre dealings. The result is a short but entertaining album. I like it, but I'm not sure who else will enjoy it. All Macabre fans won't, that's for sure. ***
CD, Unique Leader Records 2003
Track list: Anal Skewer - Stitched Oral Asphyxia - Corpsefiend - Lacerated Mastarbation - Masticate to Dominate - Charred Vaginal Effluence - Repulsive Cuntortion - Concubine of Despise - Seminal Embalment - Deadfuck
If you can forget the totally disgusting lyrics and ugly shocker cover art, Masticate to Dominate is a fairly decent gore metal album. It's not too far from Carcass, but falls a bit short nonetheless. Still, if you like the genre, Gorgasm is a good purchase. I wouldn't support this smut with my money, but if you can find the concept of raping and slaughtering women entertaining, go forth. I would've liked this much better, had the lyrics been a bit more intelligent. **
